The Terror of Austerity: How the Coalition's Cuts Are Killing Us

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25/08/2014 14:20 BST
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Updated
22/10/2014 10:59 BST

Until recently, the idea of people dying of poverty in the UK seemed unfathomable to me. That may point more towards a sheltered upbringing than anything else, but I really thought the days of British people relying on charity in order to eat were left firmly in the Victorian times. However, our reliance on emergency packages from food banks is at a record high. It's growing hard to ignore that the Coalition's austerity measures are killing people in droves.

For example, an unspecified number of people have died within six weeks of being found 'fit to work' by the Government's Department of Works and Pensions, headed by Minister Iain Duncan Smith.

Or, there's the case of David Clapson, recently highlighted by the Guardian, who had his job seeker's allowance sanctioned because he wasn't, apparently, 'taking the search for work seriously enough.' He died from diabetic ketoacidosis, after unpaid bills led to his electricity being turned off, which meant his insulin could no longer be refrigerated. He was found with a stack of CVs beside him and an empty stomach.

When people steal from the state through benefit fraud (usually out of desperation), there's public outcry. But when the state steals from the people by failing to provide even a basic standard of living, whilst corruption and tax evasion runs unchecked, we're told it's all part of a necessary strategy for economic recovery.

I'm sick of being told I'm a dreamer for thinking it doesn't have to be this way.

You don't need me to tell you that it's outlandishly offensive for millionaire Iain Duncan Smith to advise those struggling to land a job to 'get on a bus' away from their homes until they've found a job elsewhere. You certainly don't need me to tell you that it's criminal that Vodafone have been let off paying an estimated £6 billion in tax bills.

Any idiot with a calculator can work out that if huge, wealthy corporations aren't paying their tax, whilst schools and hospitals and ordinary people collapse, the onus should be on those corporations who owe the state money to make their fair contribution. It just goes to show that austerity is so much more about ideology - the dehumanisation of the poor, and the literal destruction of state infrastructure - than it ever was about economy.

Is this what they meant when they said we're all in this together? If you are eligible to vote in 2015, please make sure you are registered to do so. And if you have a heart, or any sense of basic human compassion, please don't vote Tory.